EP. 253 - TEXAS: AUSTIN YOGURT SHOP MURDERS PART 2: THE MONSTER IN PLAIN SIGHT

Robert Brashers was a monster, murderer, and rapist who hid in plain sight for nearly four decades. Despite killing at least 8 people in his lifetime, he never served a second in jail for homicide. In this episode, we bring his crimes into the light, in depth, for the very first time. But even with all the information, a question remains: How many more victims does Robert Brashers have? - Sources:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eTYeCoYyxm58DXXdoFbHQyWHlWbcH9iKGIefFcQToW4/edit?tab=t.y2yayotxnlcb Listen to our new show, "THE CONSPIRACY FILES"!: -Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5IY9nWD2MYDzlSYP48nRPl -Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/id1752719844 -Amazon/Audible - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/ab1ade99-740c-46ae-8028-b2cf41eabf58/the-conspiracy-files -Pandora - https://www.pandora.com/podcast/the-conspiracy-files/PC:1001089101 -iHeart - https://iheart.com/podcast/186907423/ -PocketCast - https://pca.st/dpdyrcca -CastBox - https://castbox.fm/channel/id6193084?country=us - Stay Connected: Join the Murder in America fam in our free Facebook Community for a behind-the-scenes look, more insights and current events in the true crime world: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4365229996855701 If you want even more Murder in America bonus content, including ad-free episodes, come join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderinamerica Instagram: http://instagram.com/murderinamerica/ Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/people/Murder-in-America-Podcast/100086268848682/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MurderInAmerica TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theparanormalfiles and https://www.tiktok.com/@courtneybrowen Feeling spooky? Follow Colin as he travels state to state (and even country to country!) investigating claims of extreme paranormal activity and visiting famous haunted locations on The Paranormal Files Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheParanormalFilesOfficialChannel - (c) BLOOD IN THE SINK PRODUCTIONS 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:44Speaker 01

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• 1:13Speaker 02

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• 1:45Colin Brown?

  Warning: The following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects.

• 1:57Courtney Brown?

  Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.

• 2:03Colin Brown?

  This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.

• 2:07Courtney Brown?

  In last week's episode, we told you the story of the 1991 Austin yogurt shop murders, where four teenage girls were brutally raped, murdered, and set on fire inside a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas. Early on in the investigation, four men were suspected in the crime, two were even convicted. But after serving nearly 10 years in prison, DNA evidence would exonerate them. And sadly, after that, the case went cold. The families of Jennifer, Sarah, Eliza, and Amy were devastated. Aside from having their daughters back, all they wanted were answers. And for 34 years, they had none. That is, until the year 2025.

• 2:49Courtney Brown?

  With advancements in DNA technology, investigators in Austin, Texas finally found the man responsible, a man who adrift through the United States, raping and killing women and girls any chance he got. So this is the story of serial killer Robert Brashers. I'm Courtney Brown.

• 3:06Colin Brown?

  And I'm Colin Brown.

• 3:07Courtney Brown?

  And you're listening to Murder in America.

• 3:11Colin Brown?

  When Robert Eugene Brashers was born on March 13th, 1958, he was the answer to a lot of prayers made by his parents, Duliss and Nellie Brashers. The couple had married 10 years earlier in Newport News, Virginia, and in that decade had had three children: Duliss Jr., Gary, and their only girl, a daughter named Deborah. But tragically, in 1954, Deborah died of an illness at just 16 months old. Four years later, Robert came into the world as their miracle baby and their final child. By all accounts, the couple was successful and well-to-do, and they took good care of their children, at least from the outside. Robert's father was a design engineer specializing in fluid dynamics.

• 3:55Colin Brown?

  At the time of Robert's birth, he was working in the Newport News Naval Shipyard, helping develop the USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The family wasn't struggling when it came to finances, and their patriarch was both intelligent and well-respected, so much so that in 1963, he was hired by NASA. The family then relocated from Newport News to Huntsville, Alabama, where Robert and his siblings spent the majority of their childhood. Now, we know the family was well-off, but what we don't know exactly is what life was like inside the home. Both Duliss Senior and Robert's mother, Nellie, seemed heavily involved in the kids' lives and activities. Duliss was frequently listed in the local paper as his son's Little League and basketball

• 4:39Colin Brown?

  coach, but that doesn't necessarily mean their home was absent of any issues. Whether Robert and his siblings' youth was riddled with abuse and neglect is unknown. He could have had a perfectly normal upbringing. Both of his parents maintained jobs, his dad at NASA and his mother at a local department store, and neither of them was ever arrested or mentioned in local papers for any legal discrepancies of any kind. Looking at the evidence we have, there's really nothing that points to a deeply troubled upbringing. We also know that Robert had no juvenile record, and although he later admitted to experimenting with marijuana, there's no known history of severe substance abuse, documented mental health problems, or anything that would lead us to believe he'd one day be a murderer.

• 5:22Courtney Brown?

  From everything we could find, Robert appeared to be a normal and intelligent young man. He attended SR Butler High School during his sophomore and junior years in Huntsville, and participated in the JROTC, a military program that is supposed to instill discipline and leadership skills. And by all accounts, Robert seemed to have had that. Living in Alabama in his early teens, he managed three jobs. One was at a place called Manpower, the other was a local pizza restaurant, and then finally, at a store that sold CB radios. At school, he consistently got good grades and was even on track to graduate from Butler High early. But the summer after his junior year of high school, his father got a job in South Bend,

• 6:05Courtney Brown?

  Indiana, so the family moved over 500 miles north and settled into a home there. Instead of graduating from school in Huntsville, where Robert had spent the majority of his adolescent years, he graduated from John Adams High School instead, in December of 1975. And while living there, he experienced his first run-ins with the law: a simple parking ticket in South Bend, and a speeding ticket in nearby Niles, Michigan. Again, nothing that screamed dysfunction or trouble.

• 6:33Colin Brown?

  After graduating, it seemed that Robert knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life: join the US Navy. Just three months after getting his diploma, on March 31st, 1976, he enlisted in El Paso, Texas. And initially, the Navy was thrilled to have him onboard. Based on his mental and aptitude test scores, he was listed as an above-average recruit. Typically, recruits of his standing are urged towards specialized jobs in the Navy, like roles in intelligence, aviation, or advanced engineering. And it seems that Robert was pointed towards aviation, enrolling as an aviation recruit at a training facility in Memphis, Tennessee in May of 1976. Two months later, in July, he was bumped up from aviation recruit to aviation apprentice,

• 7:18Colin Brown?

  signifying that he had completed the necessary training and was on the right path. But then, in August, something odd happened. He enrolled in a basic course focused on electronics, and just eight days later, he dropped out. The once starry-eyed 18-year-old seemed to have lost interest. Now, there isn't a lot of information about why he didn't want to do it anymore, but the US Navy noted in his paperwork that he expressed a "lack of motivation." As a result of his disinterest in his classes and furthering his career in the aviation field, he was transferred to serve on the USS Lexington in Pensacola, Florida.

• 7:54Courtney Brown?

  Within a few short months, Robert had moved from Indiana to Texas, to Tennessee, and then Florida. Perhaps the constant moving around was too much for him, or maybe he just didn't have what it took to be in the Navy. Whatever it was, Robert started talking to the people around him about how he needed to get out. He complained about suffering from acid reflux, he started to feel depressed, so much so that he set up an appointment with a military psychiatrist. After his first session, the psychiatrist sent a note to Robert's superiors, diagnosing him with, quote, "inadequate personality disorder." Now, that diagnosis and term aren't ones that are used today. In fact, it hasn't been listed in the DSM since the early 70s.

• 8:39Courtney Brown?

  In the DSM II, published in 1964, inadequate personality disorder was characterized as follows, quote, "displays inadequate responses to intellectual, social, emotional, and physical demands, coupled with inflexibility, ineptness, poor judgment, lack of stamina, and social incompatibility," end quote. The diagnosis, and other personality disorder diagnosis, were frequently used in the Navy in order to discharge members who didn't succeed, or those who were struggling to fit in with others and do what was expected of them. In other words, it was kind of a catch-all diagnosis, one that said, "This isn't working out for us, or for you."

• 9:21Courtney Brown?

  But as a result of his alleged inadequate personality disorder, on November 10th, the psychiatrist actually recommended administrative separation for Robert, which is when a service member is discharged before their contract ends. In that recommendation letter, the psychiatrist wrote, quote, "It is felt that his problems will not resolve themselves with time," end quote. And at the time, they couldn't possibly have understood the depth of those problems, or what they would one day evolve into.

• 9:51Colin Brown?

  Exactly one month later, on December 10th, 1976, Robert was honorably discharged from the Navy. He was required to sign his discharge paperwork, signifying that he agreed with statements made by his psychiatrist and his superiors, which included the statement, “Not eligible for re-enlistment due to unsuitability.” And with that, Robert’s 10-month military career came to an end. Now, as we’ve mentioned, there’s a lot of mystery surrounding Robert’s life. But since his name has come into the media, there’s an investigative reporter who’s worked tirelessly to uncover his past. Her name is Kathy Sweeney, and she actually spoke with Robert’s family members, who provided valuable insight into where Robert lived and what he was doing.

• 10:33Colin Brown?

  They stated that after leaving the US Navy, Robert had a hard time finding his footing. First, he moved back to the place he grew up, Huntsville, Alabama, where he got a job as a bartender at a place called T. P. Krokmyrs. From there, he eventually moved to Louisiana sometime in the late 70s, where he worked on an oil rig. Where he lived in Louisiana, or what rig he was working on, no one seems to know. But by the early 80s, he settled down in New Orleans.

• 10:59Courtney Brown?

  Now, because he moved around a lot during this time, it’s unclear exactly what he was up to. But what we do know is that he was a young man with worsening mental health issues that weren’t being treated. There are several law enforcement officials who believe that it’s during these years that he started to dabble in criminal activity, though the full extent of his actions, or who he may have targeted, has never been proven. Here’s Detective Dan Jackson, the lead investigator of the Yogurt Shop Murders, talking with reporter Kathy Sweeney.

• 11:31Speaker 05

  Because we have large gaps in his history of where he was, certain periods. And so, but what we do know is, he was always offending when he wasn’t in prison, so we, I mean, I’m certain there’s more crimes out there we just haven’t found yet.

• 11:43Courtney Brown?

  Police also haven’t found what they believe to be Robert’s first violent crime. But looking back, it seems likely that it was prior to 1980. Because on November 3rd, 1980, Robert published an obituary for himself in two newspapers, one in New Orleans, where Robert had been living, and one in Newport News, Virginia, where he was born, which had law enforcement asking, “Why? Why did Robert want people thinking he was dead?” Now, looking back on his life, detectives following this case question if there was an early rape or murder he was fleeing from in either of those areas. And well, we couldn’t resist looking through old files and newspapers for any unsolved murders near those towns that matched what became Robert’s MO.

• 12:28Courtney Brown?

  Attacks on young women, who were found naked, bound with their clothing, and often submerged in water, or set on fire in an attempt to conceal evidence. Now, finding cases matching all of those parameters was challenging, but there was one in particular that stood out to us. On August 14th, 1980, a farmer near Lyons Point, Louisiana, was walking the irrigation canals around his farmland, checking to see if they required any maintenance, when all of a sudden, he looked down, and he saw something that made his blood run cold. Floating in the water, face down, was the body of a young woman. She was nude. He didn’t have to check the woman’s pulse. He didn’t have to try and save her, or pull her out of the water.

• 13:09Courtney Brown?

  Staring at her, in the searing August humidity, it was clear she was long gone. Her body was decaying, swarmed with flies and bugs. Horrified, the farmer ran to his home and called 911. Acadia Parish Sheriff’s deputies soon arrived, and pulled the woman out of the water, so she could be identified and transported for an autopsy. But as they pulled her out, they realized her hands had been bound behind her back, first with a pair of tight handcuffs, and then with her own bra. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? All of the girls killed in the Yogurt Shop Murders were also bound with their bras or underwear. That detail is what initially caught our eye. Was this one of Robert Brashers’ early victims?

• 13:52Courtney Brown?

  Was this the reason why he published his obituary in the paper just two months later?

• 13:57Colin Brown?

  When the body was transported to the coroner’s office, it was determined that the cause of death was a gunshot wound, and that the manner was homicide. Soon, police were able to determine the identity of the victim. 27-year-old Patricia Patty Pilgrim Shilts. Patty was born and raised in nearby Opelousas, Louisiana, and got married when she was a junior in high school. Finding any information on her was a struggle. She had at least two kids, and on her tombstone, it reads that she “had compassion for all.” She lived in the same relative area that Robert Brashers is believed to have lived in at the time of her death, and notably, she worked as a security guard for an oil rig when she went missing. If you recall, Robert worked at an oil rig when he moved to Louisiana, so there are

• 14:42Colin Brown?

  multiple things that line up here. She was tied up using her own bra, thrown into a body of water, and lived and worked in the same environment, in the same area, as Robert. Now, a 19-year-old man was arrested for her murder just four days after her body was found, but after he was taken into custody, the trail went cold. There were no newspaper articles, court records, or other details we could find indicating that the man who was arrested was convicted. His record was clean. And the final article regarding both her murder and his arrest, published by the Daily World on August 19th, 1980, ends reading, “The investigation is continuing, and more persons are expected to get picked up for questioning.”

• 15:24Colin Brown?

  Now, whether Robert was involved in that murder or not, we obviously can’t say. But the fact that it contains all of Robert’s hallmarks, and took place just months before he placed an obituary in the newspaper, makes it all rather suspicious. But the fact of the matter is, Robert was very clearly hiding from something. And where he was from 1980 to 1983 is a mystery. Robert became a ghost of his own creation, appearing throughout the southeast US in random, hard-to-trace blips. In 1981, when Robert’s older brother, Gary, got married in Newport News, Robert served as his groomsmen under his real name, despite having gone to the trouble of putting a fake obituary in the paper a year earlier.

• 16:07Colin Brown?

  And shortly after his brother’s wedding, he was in the paper again, this time for his first-ever recorded crime. On May 23rd, 1981, Robert Brashers was arrested in Algiers, New Orleans, for simple burglary in an apartment complex. What happened leading up to the arrest, or what specifically he was doing, we don’t know. The details in police files have been lost to time. However, it is known that at the time he was booked, he was carrying a Texas driver’s license with a Texas address, despite his address being listed in New Orleans. To this day, no one knows what his connection to the Texas address is. So, you can see where the confusion about his whereabouts and timeline stems from.

• 16:49Colin Brown?

  Robert never stayed put for long, and he often went out of his way to cover up his trail. Because around the same time, he began to use aliases. Some of his favorites were Jack McClellan, Thomas Mitchell, and Jeremy Taylor, as well as his own brother’s name, Gary Brashers, which obviously only makes tracking him harder. There are large pockets of Robert’s life where no one knows what he was doing, where he was living, what name he was going by, or what kind of trouble he was getting into.

• 17:19Courtney Brown?

  However, at some point in 1984, he turned up in Florida, and just one year later, Robert Brashers committed his first known violent crime. It was just after 1:00 AM on November 22nd, 1985, and for the most part, the streets were quiet. After a long night, 25-year-old Michelle Wilkerson found herself walking home in Fort Pierce, Florida, on US Route 1, right alongside the beach. She could hear the waves crashing in the distance, and then, the sound of a car creeping towards her. Robert pulled up his truck beside her, and asked if she wanted a ride. To Michelle, he looked friendly enough. There was nothing to indicate he was dangerous in any way, and after all, she was walking alone at 1:00 in the morning.

• 18:04Courtney Brown?

  A car seemed safer. So Michelle decided to take him up on the offer. She hopped inside of his pickup truck, and told him where she was headed, just a few miles down the road to her house. It wasn’t a far drive, but it certainly was a far walk. And thus began the small talk. Robert introduced himself, but he didn’t use his real name. He used his brother’s. “I’m Gary,” he told her. For the first few minutes of the drive, everything seemed normal. Robert had a six-pack of Budweiser with him in the front seat. He even offered one to Michelle, who thanked him and took a drink. From there, the two drove about four miles west of Fort Pierce towards her home. But then, the mood in the car started to change.

• 18:45Courtney Brown?

  The lights of Fort Pierce started to disappear, replaced by thick lines of orange groves. Michelle must have realized at this point, that they weren’t going to her house anymore. The air in the truck was heavy, the tension was thick. And slowly, it became evident what Robert’s plan was. Now, whether he told Michelle he wanted sex, or physically showed her, has never been revealed. But however he did it, Michelle’s answer was the same. A big, resounding “no.” It should have been enough, but Robert wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer. He pulled into the grove, hid in between the trees, and parked the car. Then he grabbed Michelle, who thrashed against his touch. And then she did something incredible. She slapped Robert across the face.

• 19:28Courtney Brown?

  Furious, Robert got out of the car and grabbed her by her hair, dragging her out onto the dirt road. Michelle kicked and screamed the whole way, trying to wrestle out of his grasp. And then, Robert said something horrible, something she already knew.

• 19:43Colin Brown?

  “I’m the devil, and I’ve come here to kill you.”

• 19:47Courtney Brown?

  Then he hit her, over, and over, and over again. His fist cracked against her skull, her eyes, her jaw. Her left eye swelled shut from the severe blows. The world was going blurry. Her jaw burned like hell, a deep, deep pain that told her something was wrong, out of alignment. But she had no option but to fight, and that’s exactly what she did. Michelle kicked and hit Robert back, through her pain, until finally, Robert had enough. He pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at her face. Then, he fired. The pain must have been excruciating, but Michelle didn’t stop moving, didn’t stop trying to survive. Somehow, she managed to get to her feet.

• 20:29Courtney Brown?

  She started for the tree line, and then felt the whole world crash around her, as Robert tackled her, dragging her down into the dirt once more. It was there, where he pressed the gun to the right side of her cheek, just below her eye. Michelle was still thrashing, trying to kick him off, but then, he squeezed the trigger again.

• 20:49Courtney Brown?

  Pain throbbed through her cheek as the bullet sliced through her head, exiting behind her ear in a spray of blood. But she was still alive, and Michelle knew if she didn't get up, she'd be dead soon. So once more, she clawed her way out of his grasp. And when she finally broke free, she began to run like hell. Desperate, Robert fired another shot, this one slicing through her back. But then, she was gone, disappeared into the trees, leaving Robert standing there, gun in hand. For Robert, that must have been the moment that the adrenaline, the excitement of his crime shifted into pure panic. He had just shot a woman three times. And despite being out in the middle of nowhere, someone might have heard.

• 21:32Courtney Brown?

  He took off on foot, desperately trying to track down Michelle. But luckily, she was two steps ahead of him. Michelle knew she needed to hide. Through the blood running down her face, she managed to spot a covert running under the farm road. Thinking quickly, she leapt into the water and mud settled in the ditch. And then, she crawled into a round drainpipe, squeezing herself into the filthy opening that was just eighteen inches in diameter. Mud and water sloshed around her. Sergeant Mike Kramer told the Stewart News, "If she lost consciousness, she would have drowned." And despite the pain radiating through her, Michelle held on. She lay in that covert, soaking wet, covered in mud, and listened for her attacker.

• 22:17Courtney Brown?

  Because she knew, just like her, he wasn't going to give up. On the nearby road, Robert started up his car. And then, he started doing loops, driving up and down the road with his headlights on, desperately trying to find Michelle. Sergeant Kramer later stated, "The evidence indicates he was driving around frantically, trying to find her." And all the while, Michelle was just below him, holding her breath in the covert, listening to him driving back and forth, and back and forth. Until finally, the sound of his engine got further and further away. It was there, where Michelle knew she was alone, for better and for worse. So finally, she crawled out of the covert. She knew if she didn't get help, she was going to die there in the orange grove.

• 23:01Courtney Brown?

  So once again, she began to run, stumbling, as she made her way towards a building in the distance. It was a tiny mobile home, plopped in between the trees. She hoped there would be someone there to help her, but it was pitch black. She staggered through the door to discover it was an office building for the Grove, not a home, but there was a telephone. She grabbed it and dialed 911. And with a shaking voice, she told dispatch that she had been kidnapped and beaten. But there was a problem. Michelle had no idea where she was. Whether it was the blood loss or the emotional trauma of what she just faced, she couldn't tell the police anything, except that she was somewhere west of Fort Pierce.

• 23:40Colin Brown?

  Miles away, dispatch worked to trace the call and get to her as fast as possible. There was no time to lose, they knew it and she knew it. So, desperate to help any way she could, she stumbled out of the house and made her way to a farm truck parked out front. To her relief, the keys dangled from the ignition. She turned the keys, praying the engine would start. And as soon as it shuddered awake, she turned on the high beams, using them as a beacon to guide the police to her. Just nine minutes later, at around 2:45 a.m., sheriff's deputies raced through the Grove, having gotten a general location by tracing the call, and spotted the headlights glowing in the dense foliage. There, Sheriff's Corporal Vaughn Day discovered Michelle, barely clinging to life. He told the Palm Beach Post,

• 24:24Colin Brown?

  "She was leaning up against the wall on the phone. By the time I drove up, she'd pretty much collapsed. She seemed to have a very strong will to live." At the time, Corporal Day knew that Michelle was struggling, but he didn't know the extent of her injuries. The mud that coated her from head to toe was so thick, he couldn't even tell that she had been shot. It was only after looking closer, and after seeing the smears of red in the mud, that he realized she was bleeding. Yet, in spite of it all, lying there, floating in and out of consciousness, Michelle was able to give them a description of the man who did this. She told police that he was in his late twenties, had brown hair, and was driving a pickup truck. She was even able to give a description of what the inside of his truck looked like, including a red shirt that was on the floor,

• 25:09Colin Brown?

  and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes that she had left inside. She also said that he had these branches in the back of his truck. So immediately, a BOLO was put out for the suspect, and Michelle was rushed to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in critical condition.

• 25:24Courtney Brown?

  Luckily, Robert didn't make it very far. After realizing he couldn't find Michelle in the Grove, he began to panic. He had just shot a girl in the head, and the weapon he used was still hot in his possession. So from there, Robert drove over the bridge onto South Hutchinson Island, and then onto Frederick Douglass Beach. He pulled his truck right up on the sand. There wasn't a soul around, just him and the endless ocean. So he got out and walked waist-deep into the water, holding the gun, and threw it, as far as he could into the ocean. With the weapon gone, Robert ran back to his truck to flee. But as he tried to back out, the truck didn't budge. Sand kicked up around the tires, no matter how hard he tried. And it's here, where he had to face the truth. He was stuck.

• 26:09Courtney Brown?

  Meanwhile, every officer in a several-mile radius was looking for a man matching his description. One being Deputy Angela Darling. She, along with the rest of the force, was keeping their eyes peeled. And soon enough, Deputy Darling saw a man who matched the description, walking along South A1A, near Frederick Douglass Beach. She pulled up beside him and asked him what was wrong. He explained that his truck was stuck in the sand, and that he needed some help getting it out. Deputy Darling knew, that if he had the slightest suspicion that they were onto him, he'd try to flee. So she played it cool. She offered to give him a ride, and even said she would call a tow truck for him. And surprisingly, Robert got in the car with her, without a fuss. Sergeant Kramer told the Palm Beach Post

• 26:54Courtney Brown?

  why he believed Robert would do such a thing, saying, "He was assuming he had just killed the girl, and nobody knew. So, he was acting cool." On the drive back towards the mainland from the island, Robert was casual, chatty even. But as they drove onto South Bridge, they were met with a line of police cars, blocking off the road, waiting just for him. Deputy Darling brought the car to a stop. And in seconds, Robert Brashers was in handcuffs. Meanwhile, on the beach, officers inspected his pickup truck and marked it as a crime scene. And sure enough, when they looked inside, they saw the cigarettes, they saw the red shirt. They even saw the branches piled in the back, just like Michelle said there would be. It was the exact truck that Michelle had described.

• 27:39Courtney Brown?

  And Robert was the exact man Michelle described. So from there, he was charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, aggravated battery, and the use of a firearm in commission of a felony. The news of the attack and Michelle's bravery spread like wildfire. The fact that she was able to fight a man twice her size, survive being shot three times, and then rescue herself by hiding in a covert, had people in awe. She fought every step of the way for her survival. And in turn, she expected justice. But sadly, that's not what she got. Ultimately, Judge Rupert J. Smith only sentenced Robert to 12 years in prison.

• 28:20Courtney Brown?

  12 years for shooting a girl in the head, all because she wouldn't have sex with him. Now luckily, Michelle went on to make a full physical recovery. But we can't imagine the emotional scars the incident left, or the frustration she must have felt hearing that the man who tried to murder her was only sentenced to a little over a decade in prison. But to make matters even worse, 12 years ended up being essentially a suggestion. Just three and a half years into his sentence, on May 4, 1989, Robert was released from prison for good behavior. That's right. A man who viciously attacked a woman, tried to kill her, and then left her for dead with no remorse, was put behind bars for less time than it takes to get a bachelor's degree.

• 29:03Courtney Brown?

  And had Robert been sentenced accordingly, had he been treated like the ticking time bomb he was, at least eight women, and likely more, would still be alive today.

• 29:13Colin Brown?

  But instead, Robert Brashers was released into the general public. And following his release, he got the hell out of Dodge. Immediately, he moved north to Atlanta, where he worked at an air conditioning business off and on. Then he relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, where he worked as a construction worker. And by spring of 1990, about a year after his release, he had moved again, this time to Greenville, South Carolina. It's still unclear what exactly brought him there, as he had no family in the area that we were able to find, or any connections whatsoever. But when he arrived, in spite of his record, he managed to get a job as a maintenance man at an apartment complex, Hidden Lake Apartments on Villa Road.

• 29:55Colin Brown?

  While he was there, he was essentially a ghost. No one remembered working with him, and the residents at the apartment complex could hardly remember him at all. Unfortunately, they would remember what he had done for years to come. Because not long after settling into the apartment complex, he set his eyes on his next victim, 28-year-old Genevieve Zatricki.

• 30:20Courtney Brown?

  Jenny lived in Greenville looking for a fresh start. She had recently moved from her home state of Ohio and in 1990, she was getting a taste of real freedom and adventure for the very first time. Jenny had recently divorced her husband and was on her own as an adult. It's a scary transition for many people, but for Jenny, it opened her up to a world of exciting possibilities. In Greenville, she had a steady job as a programmer analyst at Michelin Tire Corporation, where she was one of the smartest employees. At her apartment complex, she was known as a friendly face in the life of the party. She always held get togethers at the apartment's pool, encouraging neighbors to meet one another and forging connections with anyone and everyone.

• 31:04Courtney Brown?

  She was a social butterfly and very quickly, nearly everyone in the complex knew her by name. When she wasn't throwing parties, she was out being social in other ways. Jenny was very involved in her church and she also signed up for clubs around her community. She was a member of the Michelin softball team and the Brown Backers Club of Greenville. So as you can see, she was busy and widely loved. And what she did on April 4th, 1990 was a great example of that. Jenny had spent the day having a few drinks with her friends, where she excitedly told them about the weekend ahead. She was going to be in a friend's wedding. So that night, as soon as she got home, she laid out a freshly dry cleaned dress on a chair in her living room. Then around midnight, she called her girlfriend to chat.

• 31:49Courtney Brown?

  They were on the phone for about 30 minutes before Jenny hung up and crawled into bed. She should have been safe there, but outside, someone was watching her. Someone who had just gotten out of prison less than a year prior for nearly murdering a woman. And in the early morning hours of April 5th, that someone was prying open her garden level sliding glass door with a crowbar. As Robert Brasher stepped into Jenny's apartment, it was dark, it was quiet, and he tiptoed his way over to her bedroom. Inside, Jenny was fast asleep, but she was about to wake up to a nightmare. Now, details are scarce on exactly what happened. However, we do know that when Jenny opened her eyes, she saw a stranger standing by her bed. And soon after that, she was raped.

• 32:34Courtney Brown?

  We also know that she was bludgeoned with something, possibly that crowbar that he used to get inside. And in her final moments of life, as a stranger stood over her, he grabbed a pair of pantyhose and he strangled her until she took her final breath. But he wasn't finished just yet. After killing Jenny, he used the same pantyhose he had strangled her with as a handle and he dragged her to the bathroom with them looped around her throat. A 20-foot-long trail of blood led from her bed, where she had been killed, to the bathtub, where he placed her dead body and then turned on the water. Then he positioned her just how he wanted her, posed beneath the running faucet. So the water pouring from the spout ran directly between her legs. He was not only sending a message,

• 33:19Courtney Brown?

  but likely trying to wash away any DNA evidence he had left after assaulting her. Then he went into the kitchen and filled up the sink with water. He then dumped the contents of her purse inside. Then finally, he grabbed her lipstick off the counter and wrote a message on the mirror. A message that read in big, bold letters, "Don't fuck with my family." Investigators suspect that he did this to make it look like she was killed by someone she knew, someone Jenny had wronged rather than a complete stranger. And after his twisted work was complete, he left, slipping out the same sliding glass door that he came in through. For hours, Jenny's body floated in the tub, the water running and spilling through the overflow drain.

• 34:02Courtney Brown?

  No one had heard a thing, no one knew anything was wrong. But the next morning, April 5th, 1990, people started to realize something wasn't right. Jenny's desk at work sat empty. Her coworkers, who were also her good friends, were concerned. So concerned that they called her apartment complex and asked if they could check on her.

• 34:22Colin Brown?

  For some reason, the apartment complex sent building maintenance men to Jenny's apartment to do a welfare check on her. And if you recall, Robert was working as a maintenance man at the time of Jenny's murder. Now, whether he was one of the people sent in, we don't know. But the fact that that was even a possibility is disturbing, especially since police believe part of the pleasure Robert derived from his crimes came from the shock they elicited in others. If he was one of the ones to go inside, he would get to see that shock up close and personal. Because when the maintenance men entered the apartment using a key, they discovered a horrible sight. Jenny floating in the bathtub, dead, with pantyhose tied around her neck.

• 35:04Colin Brown?

  Jenny wasn't just a stranger, she was well-liked by people at the complex. And when cops arrived and the news spread, the love everyone had for her was clear. As officers closed off her apartment with crime scene tape, several neighbors rushed over to make sure Jenny was okay. And it was there where they received the terrible news. Miles and miles away, her family received the worst phone calls of their lives and they couldn't even be together to take in their new horrible reality. Her mother was in Youngstown, Ohio, and her brother Philip was in California. Their lives were forever changed by the loss of Jenny. And sadly, it wasn't the Zatrickys' first loss of the year. Jenny's father had died just weeks before, leaving her mother a widow.

• 35:48Colin Brown?

  And just a few weeks' time, their family of four had dwindled down to two. Jenny's mother recalled that when she spoke to Jenny about her anxiety experiencing her first Christmas as a widow, her daughter hugged her and said, "You're not going to be alone on Christmas. You and me are going to Vegas." The promise that she'd always have her daughter by her side had made things a little easier. But it didn't last. She told the Greensville News, she only had six weeks to live. It was devastating and the family wanted answers. So they put up a $15,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of her killer. Over the course of several months, investigators interviewed hundreds of people and potential suspects.

• 36:30Colin Brown?

  They knew immediately that robbery hadn't been a motive as nothing of value had been stolen. And because of the threatening message on the mirror, they figured it was someone from Jenny's past. But every single person they looked into wasn't looking like their suspect. None of the cliches you'd expect, given the message matched. Jenny wasn't the other woman in an affair. She hadn't had fights with anyone. She hadn't snitched on anyone or been involved in any illegal activities. She was clean and sadly, her killer was nowhere on law enforcement's radar. In fact, he wouldn't be connected to Jenny's murder for nearly three decades. And throughout the 1990s, Robert Brasher's was free to move from state to state.

• 37:12Colin Brown?

  It seemed that everywhere he went, he was committing violent crimes. But there wasn't a clear pattern to those crimes. With Michelle, he picked her up on the side of the road and shot her. With Jenny, he broke into her apartment, raped and strangled her, and then staged the scene. And with him moving so often, it's hard to track exactly what he was doing or who he was killing. Austin attorney Mindy Montford would later say, "When you see it on paper, you think, wow, he was in this state one day and then the next state. But really, those cities were right along the border. He was able to just hop a couple hours away." And that was by design. Robert was sadly pretty smart about his crimes. He knew that committing them in different jurisdictions would make them harder to connect.

• 37:57Colin Brown?

  Here's Detective Dan Jackson talking with KVSF 12.

• 38:01Speaker 05

  He was smart enough that he never got caught. He was smart enough that he would pick his victims seemingly at random, like he would venture out a couple of hours and often cross state lines. So that seemed to be planned. But then there's also the randomness.

• 38:17Courtney Brown?

  That same randomness was in other areas of Robert's life too. At some point, he met a woman in Paragould, Arkansas, named Rose Stoltz, and he settled down with her. Now Rose already had three kids of her own. But in 1991, when Robert was 33 years old, their family grew by one more. That summer, Robert and Rose welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Deborah. Now you'd like to think that maybe, just maybe, having a daughter of his own would change his ways. That he might think about the parents he was taking children away from. But if anything, at this point, his crimes only got more violent. And just a few months after the birth of his daughter,

• 38:58Courtney Brown?

  Robert went on to commit his most infamous crime yet, the Austin Yogurt Shop murders. No one knows exactly what Robert was doing in Austin, Texas on that fateful night. At the time, his father lived in Arizona and he would later state that he was on his way to visit him. But with Robert, it's hard to take anything at face value. To this day, investigators are still trying to grapple with why Robert targeted the yogurt shop. Sure, it was right off the freeway, but so were dozens of other businesses and homes. And for some reason, on December 6th, 1991, he zeroed in on "I can't believe it's yogurt." And from that moment on, Austin, Texas was forever changed. Now, as a quick recap, that night, as the store closed,

• 39:42Courtney Brown?

  four young girls were inside. Jennifer Harbison, her sister Sarah Harbison, Eliza Thomas, and Amy Ayers.

• 39:52Courtney Brown?

  Now Jennifer and Eliza worked at the yogurt shop. They were both seventeen years old. Fifteen-year-old Sarah and thirteen-year-old Amy were just there, keeping them company, looking forward to their sleepover that night. And if you recall from the previous episode, there were three different suspects that were seen in the shop that night. The ones that likely come to mind are those two men that were seen sitting at one of the tables shortly before closing. Two witnesses reported seeing the men around ten forty-five PM, fifteen minutes before closing. But what stuck out to them was that the men weren't eating yogurt. They were just sitting there in silence, messing with this bag on the table. The couple that saw the men said that there was a weird energy to them. And when they left the store at ten forty-seven PM,

• 40:36Courtney Brown?

  those guys were the only customers inside. The witnesses also said that as they walked back to their car, Jennifer Harbison locked the door to the yogurt shop and put up the close sign. Now typically in a business, this means that anyone still inside the shop can leave, but no one else can come in. So for decades, investigators always believed that these were the men responsible for the murders. And to this day, we still have no idea who those men are. The guys never came forward professing their innocence, which only solidified the theory that they were responsible. However, as we know, they weren't. It's believed that Robert Brashers acted alone. So even though these men were acting strange, investigators now think that they walked out of the store

• 41:21Courtney Brown?

  only for chaos to unfold soon after.

• 41:24Colin Brown?

  Now, the other suspect investigators have repeatedly tried to identify over the years was another man who was seen inside the yogurt shop that night. A retired military police officer named Daryl Croft was in the yogurt shop between nine thirty and ten PM, and he said that while inside, he noticed another man, a white male in his mid to late twenties, approximately five-ten and around a hundred and seventy pounds. He described him as "a fidgety man, wearing a green military-style jacket." The mystery man ordered a Sprite, and after paying in cash, he asked if there was a restroom he could use. Jennifer pointed him to the back of the store. They didn't have a customer restroom, but he was welcome to use the employee one near the freezers. He thanked her, then went down the hall into the back of the store.

• 42:09Colin Brown?

  The whole thing felt so wrong to Croft that after ordering his yogurt, he stayed behind. He told the Austin American Statesman, "Something bothered me, so I hung around. I wanted to see if the guy came out of the back. Something just didn't feel right." But Croft waited, and waited, and waited, and when the man still hadn't emerged from the back after several minutes, Croft gave in and left. What that man did, or if it was even Robert, is unknown. However, some people suspect that it was Robert, and that after gaining access to the back, he either waited in the bathroom to strike, or he propped open the back door, allowing himself a way to enter even after the front door was locked.

• 42:51Courtney Brown?

  Regardless, we know that sometime after ten forty-seven PM, Robert Brashers launched his attack. Armed with his .22 caliber revolver and his .380 backup, he approached the shop. Now, the front door of the shop would have already been locked. After those two men left, Jennifer would have locked the door behind them. And we know that, because when police arrived at the building later that night, the key was actually found locked in the front door, which means there are several possibilities on how Robert got inside. Maybe he was the person who used the bathroom and propped the back door open. There's also another theory that Robert may have picked the lock to the back door of the yogurt shop. After all, he was known to carry a lockpicking kit. Now, based on other crimes Robert committed,

• 43:35Courtney Brown?

  we also know that he would often fake emergencies. He would knock on doors and pretended he needed help. Then he would flash his gun and force his way inside. So maybe he knocked on the front door of the shop, faking an emergency, and one of the girls let him in, locking it behind him. We don't know. But regardless of how he got inside, almost immediately, Jennifer, Eliza, Sarah, and Amy knew that they were in danger. It's believed that once inside, he brandished his gun and forced Eliza Thomas to open the cash register. At eleven oh-three PM, Eliza rang up one final transaction for the night, a no-sale. Inside the register was five hundred and forty dollars. Robert took all of it. I'm sure from here, the girls thought that their nightmare would soon come to an end.

• 44:20Courtney Brown?

  That soon enough, this madman would take the money and flee. But as you know, that's not how this story ends. After taking the money, Robert pointed the gun at the girls and forced them into the back room of the yogurt shop. It was a small room. It had a sink, some shelving, and along the back wall was the door that led to the alley, a door that led to freedom, one that sadly, none of them would ever walk out of again.

• 44:46Colin Brown?

  Interestingly, around eleven oh-five to eleven-ten PM, a girl named Kate Wallace McClung would later say that she was walking down Rockwood Lane on her way to the North Cross Mall when she noticed something odd. The lights were still on at "I Can't Believe It's Yogurt." Usually, at eleven PM on the dot, the lights were off. But not tonight. Now, there was never any mention about whether or not this witness saw anyone inside, but it's believed that by this point, Robert was already in the back room, doing unspeakable things to the four teenage girls.

• 45:18Courtney Brown?

  Inside that back room, Robert ordered the girls at gunpoint to remove their clothing. So they did. Investigators would later say that their shoes were neatly lined up in a row. Then, using their own bras, Robert tied the girls' hands behind their backs. Naked and bound, he then took their underwear and shoved it into their mouths, gagging them. And then it's here where he began sexually assaulting them, one right after the other. Horrifically, it's believed that the sexual assaults went on for forty or so minutes. Male DNA was found inside at least three of the girls. And as you can imagine, it was absolutely horrific. Not only were they assaulted, but it was done in front of their best friends, the people they loved most in the world. And while it happened,

• 46:03Courtney Brown?

  their friends were forced to confront the reality that they were next. One of the girls was even found with a metal ice scoop in between her legs. It's suspected that it was used during the sexual assault. Now, the youngest victim, thirteen-year-old Amy, was not found with her hands tied behind her back. In fact, she actually had Robert's DNA underneath her fingernails, meaning she fought back. Perhaps after breaking out of the restraints Robert had originally tied. Now Amy also had a sock-like cloth around her neck. It's suspected that Robert tried to strangle her with it. And then at some point, everything came to a head. Perhaps Robert was getting nervous that someone would soon come looking for the girls. Perhaps they started to fight back. Or maybe, in his sick mind,

• 46:48Courtney Brown?

  he was satisfied with what he had taken from them, and he was ready to now take their lives. Whatever it was, around eleven forty PM, he lined all of the girls up in the back room. He forced them onto their knees, and then he pulled out his .22 caliber gun. First, he stood behind Jennifer. He pointed the gun to the back of her head and pulled the trigger.

• 47:10Courtney Brown?

  Her little sister Sarah watched in horror as she dropped to the ground, blood pooling beneath her. And before Sarah could react, Robert turned the gun on her. Once Sarah was down, he shot Eliza, whose body fell on top of Sarah's. And then, there was thirteen-year-old Amy. She too was shot execution-style in the back of the head with the .22. But the bullet missed her brain. She was still alive, still conscious. And knowing that she was about to die, she attempted to get up and run away. So it's here where Robert pulled out his other gun, the .380 backup. It's unknown why he switched guns. Maybe his .22 had run out of bullets, or maybe it jammed.

• 47:53Courtney Brown?

  But as Amy was running away towards the front of the yogurt shop, he lifted the gun and fired. This time, it didn't miss. It sliced through Amy's neck, severing her brainstem. Amy dropped to the ground about twelve feet away from the others, her arm stretched out towards the front door. And then, the room was silent. Robert was standing in front of four dead teenage girls, looking at his previous known crimes. It's an escalation. Previously, he had only gone after individuals, Michelle Wilkerson and Jenny Suttricky. But now, seemingly out of nowhere, he had broken into a business in a busy shopping center and killed four teenagers. And shockingly, he planned it perfectly.

• 48:36Courtney Brown?

  Because despite living nowhere near Austin, Texas, and it being 1991, Robert seemed to realize that there was evidence behind that could be traced to him. So in an effort to destroy it, he decided he was going to set the shop on fire. Investigators believe that he started the fire on the metal shelf near Jennifer's body. But how he started it is unclear. First responders said that there were no signs that an accelerant was used, but they also never tested for it, so we'll never know. What's known for certain is that he started the fire on that metal shelf. And slowly, it spread throughout that back room. Jennifer Harbison had the most severe burns of the four girls. Her family said that she always wore this Timex watch with a black strap.

• 49:21Courtney Brown?

  The watch stopped working at exactly eleven forty-eight PM, the moment the heat reached its peak intensity. By then, Robert Brashers had already walked out the back door of the yogurt shop. And just minutes later, that rookie police officer noticed the smoke billowing into the night sky. But by the time anyone found the burned bodies inside, the killer, Robert Brashers, was already on the freeway, heading out of town. He left a crime scene that became notorious. But more important than what he left is what he took, the lives of four young women with their whole lives ahead of them. He took with him their futures, what they would have given to the world, who they would grow into. And it's heartbreaking to think about,

• 50:03Courtney Brown?

  had he served his full sentence in Florida for the attack on Michelle Wilkerson, Amy, Jennifer, Sarah, and Eliza would still be alive. So would Jenny Suttricky. By this point, Robert still would have had two years left of his sentence, but he was released, and he would go on to hurt as many people as he could. In the case of the yogurt shop murders, it worked out perfectly for him, because that case would go unsolved for three whole decades. That alone is infuriating. But even more so when you look at just how easily Robert could have been captured.

• 50:43Colin Brown?

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• 51:31Colin Brown?

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• 52:15Colin Brown?

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• 53:01Colin Brown?

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• 53:42Colin Brown?

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• 54:21Colin Brown?

  Anyways, y'all, let's get back to the show.

• 54:28Colin Brown?

  Because on December 8, 1991, less than 48 hours after murdering the four teenage girls, Robert was stopped at an interior border patrol checkpoint between El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Now, if you've ever been through one of these, they're pretty simple. If you're stopped, you're asked if you live in the US, where you're going, and sometimes your vehicle is inspected. Most of the time, you're simply waved through. But Robert was stopped. The agent asked where he was going. He said he was on his way to visit his father in Arizona, but something about Robert's answers, his nervousness, had the agent on edge. So he ran the plates on Robert's truck, and that's when he realized that the truck had been reported stolen about a week earlier in Marietta, Georgia.

• 55:13Colin Brown?

  So from there, the agent searched the car, and that's when he found the gun, the 380 AMT Backup. And as soon as he found it, somehow, Robert took off. Some reports state it was on foot. Others state he took off driving in the vehicle. But after getting about a mile away in the desert with border patrol chasing after him, Robert stopped and surrendered. He apologized for his behavior, saying that he wasn't supposed to be carrying a gun because he was a felon, so he panicked. But I don't think that's what really happened here, and neither do many experts. You see, in the car, police discovered the 380, the weapon that was used to kill Amy Ayers, one of two definitive links connecting him to the yogurt shop murders.

• 55:57Colin Brown?

  But they never found the 22, the gun that was used to kill the other three girls. Had they found both the 380 and the 22, it's possible police may have quickly connected him to what had happened in Austin. Some people suspect that after the police uncovered the 380, Robert realized that they may be able to trace it back to the murders. So wanting to lower his chances, he fled in order to dispose of the 22. Sure, he'd get a fleeing and evading charge, but he may save himself from being connected to the murders. That would also explain why, after making it just a mile, Robert surrendered himself. Some officers believe that, in that mile, Robert got rid of the 22 in the desert. And then, once the evidence was gone, he went down without a fight.

• 56:41Colin Brown?

  Regardless of what happened in that mile, Robert was arrested for grand theft of the car, and the gun was actually confiscated. Sergeant Jones would later state that by this point, the information regarding the weapon used in the yogurt shop murders had been broadcast to all law enforcement agencies throughout Texas, including border patrol. So this arrest could have given them the answers they needed to solve the case. But for reasons that remain unclear, the connection slipped through the cracks. Little did they know, the murder weapon used in the yogurt shop murders was right there in their possession, but no one connected the dots.

• 57:17Courtney Brown?

  Now surprisingly, according to an unnamed family member of Robert's, the 380 that had been confiscated was actually returned to his father, Dulis. And everything we're about to say comes from this anonymous family member, but it does provide insight into what may have been going on in Robert's family life and how he managed to avoid jail time and time again. Allegedly, Robert's father, Dulis, got the gun back from law enforcement, and then he simply returned it back to Robert. In addition, it's claimed that Dulis would post bail for Robert anytime he was arrested for his minor offenses like grand theft auto. And looking at the timeline, that makes sense. Robert wasn't rolling in dough by any means.

• 58:00Courtney Brown?

  Yet soon after he was arrested at this border checkpoint, he was out on the streets yet again. In fact, two months later, on February 18, 1992, he was arrested again in Cobb County, Georgia, for essentially the same crime: possession of a stolen vehicle and stolen pistol. But this time, when they searched his car, they found even more concerning things, like a police jacket, a radio scanner, a fake Tennessee license, and lockpicking tools. A whole crime kit. And sadly, like everything else in his life, Robert's consequences were not very severe. He was even offered a plea deal in exchange for pleading guilty to one of the more serious possession charges. The rest were dropped.

• 58:43Courtney Brown?

  In the end, he was sentenced to five years in prison. And shockingly, this time, he did serve out the full sentence. It was the one and only time in his crime-filled life that he served the full amount of time given to him. But in February of 1997, he was a free man once again. And with that freedom, it seemed as if he wanted to focus on his family. His daughter, Deborah, was around six years old when he was released. And from what she could remember from that time, Robert was a great father. She would later say that she thought her dad was, quote, "the greatest man alive." Now Deborah spoke with KFVS and their segment called "Chasing a Ghost." Here she is discussing her memories of her father and how he doted on the family.

• 59:27Speaker 07

  I remember him tilling up our front yard for putting little square grass down. My mother, my mother wanted a certain kind of grass. He tilled up the whole front yard and put new grass down so that she'd have the certain grass she wanted. We had a washer and dryer in the house. She wanted a clothesline. He built her a clothesline. He took my sister's canoeing. He took us camping before. We've done a lot of things with him that I never done with anybody else.

• 59:58Courtney Brown?

  Robert could be loving, charming, excitable, and by all accounts, it seemed like he really did love his wife and daughters. For Deborah, that actually makes things even more twisted. In multiple interviews, she's posed the question, how can you have children of your own and mess with children? And we find ourselves asking the same thing in nearly every case we cover regarding child predators. In this case, however, there was some dysfunction in the home. Robert struggled with alcohol, and he was known to have a temper. Deborah recalled a childhood incident where she accidentally swallowed a penny. According to her account, Robert responded by beating her. Another time, her sister walked into his bedroom without permission, and he dragged her out of the room by her hair. Deborah also witnessed Robert

• 1:00:43Courtney Brown?

  hitting her mom on one occasion. But by her account, her mom hit him back. Here is Deborah with KFBS recalling the violence inside their home.

• 1:00:52Speaker 07

  I remember when he beat the [BLEEP] out of my sister for no reason. Like, that's the one time we've seen his terror be taken out on us. And then the time that him and my mother got into a fight and he put a goose egg on her head. Like, and then she beat the [BLEEP] out of him and got him in the corner, and she was begging, he was begging her to stop.

• 1:01:10Colin Brown?

  Obviously, things at home weren't great, and Robert was known to leave for extended periods of time. But he always told his family that he was working construction in different states across the US. He seemed to always come home with money, so no one questioned him. Robert even had business cards, so they had no reason to believe he was lying. Deborah admitted that when her father would come home from these trips, he always seemed different. I'm sure they figured it was just the stress of the jobs he was working. But in reality, Robert was not working construction. He was out committing crimes, killing and raping women and girls. Girls that weren't much older than his own daughter. But somehow, he was still able to live a double life. His daughter, Deborah, would later tell the

• 1:01:54Colin Brown?

  Greenville News, he was an amazing father, a father anybody would have wanted to have. They always say serial killers live two separate lives. Some live just to kill, then others like my father who live in plain sight for years. But Robert's family life did not stop him from being the monster he truly was. Because, less than a month after getting out of prison, Robert committed his next crime.

• 1:02:18Courtney Brown?

  It was March 11, 1997. It's unclear exactly why he was driving through Memphis, Tennessee, but at some point along the way, he spotted a home. Inside were four females: a 47-year-old, a 20-year-old, a 17-year-old, and a 14-year-old. And alongside them was a nine-and-a-half-month-old baby. It's safe to assume that he saw the young girls beforehand, young girls that he decided he was going to assault for his own sick pleasure. So in broad daylight, he knocked on their door. When one of the girls opened the door, he put on the charm. He explained that he and his wife had been at a store just across the street, and she had left her purse on top of the car. "Have y'all seen her purse?"

• 1:03:00Courtney Brown?

  he asked them. Of course, they hadn't. So Robert asked if he could leave his name and number in case they happened to find it. When the girl at the door turned around to grab a pen, Robert pulled a gun out of his pocket and forced his way inside. Immediately, Robert ordered all of the girls to line up against the wall. It was four versus one, but a gun is a powerful motivator, so the girls did as Robert said. Once they were under his control, he put on some dishwashing gloves, so he wouldn't leave fingerprints behind. He then tied the girls up with a phone cord and duct tape he had brought with him. The youngest was just 14 years old, and sadly, she was the one he sexually assaulted, right in front of her whole family as they lay on the ground helpless, unable to save

• 1:03:45Courtney Brown?

  her. By the time the horrible ordeal was over, Robert fled the home and the family's car, which was discovered abandoned, in a nearby Kmart parking lot two days later. For everyone in the home, the incident was horrifically traumatic, and it didn't end when Robert left. The victim of the sexual assault, who was just 14, bravely went to the hospital to have a rape kit administered. At any age, the process can feel incredibly violating. You're vulnerable. You've just been taken advantage of in the worst way possible. And then you're in a clinical setting, being poked and prodded and swabbed. Now, this isn't to negate the importance of getting rape kits done following an assault, but

• 1:04:27Courtney Brown?

  it's to point out that the victims are often re-traumatized getting them. It's to say it's a brave, selfless act, one that should be honored by law enforcement. But in this case, and many others, it wasn't. The rape kit that the 14-year-old girl did, the kit that could have gotten Robert Brashers arrested, sat on a shelf collecting dust for 20 years. 20 years. An offender who broke into a home and took control of four women, raping one of them, somehow wasn't seen as an important threat worth looking into. That girl went through getting the kit taken, trusting that it may save other people, and instead, by the time it was tested, her attacker was long gone.

• 1:05:10Colin Brown?

  About two weeks later, on March 28, 1998, Robert Brashers was on the road again, this time in rural Portageville, Missouri. And along his drive, he spotted 37-year-old Sherri Sherer and her 12-year-old daughter Megan Elizabeth Sherer working outside in their garden on their big manicured lawn. That afternoon was unseasonably warm, and the family welcomed it. Megan and Sherri worked away getting fruits and veggies planted. Meanwhile, Anthony, the father of the family, and Megan's brother, 15-year-old Steven, took the tractor down the road to help do some work at a friend's farm. At about 6:20 PM, Steven called his mom to tell her that they were heading home and should be there

• 1:05:51Colin Brown?

  in a few minutes. They discussed dinner plans. Pizza, which Sherri offered to pick up, and exchanged "I love yous" before hanging up. But on the way home, driving through winding farm roads, another farmer was struggling. His equipment broke down as he was crossing the road to tend to another field, meaning that Steven and Anthony's only way home was blocked. Anthony got out of the tractor and helped fix the issue, which took another 20 or so minutes. Not wanting his wife to worry, he called the house phone to give her an update. But this time, the phone rang, and rang, and rang. Anthony thought it was odd, given that Steven had talked to Sherri just 20 minutes earlier, but he shrugged

• 1:06:32Colin Brown?

  it off, suggesting that maybe they had already gone to pick up the pizza. Little did he know, what was unfolding at his home just a mile away was nothing short of a nightmare.

• 1:06:43Courtney Brown?

  Anthony and Steven arrived home minutes after making that call home. As they entered the garage, they noticed that Sherri's car was there. Initially, they were excited, thinking that Sherri had already come back with the pizza. Anthony mindlessly brushed his hand over the hood, but as he did, he realized something. Something that he couldn't help but say aloud. The engine's not even warm. She must have not gone yet. And as they entered the home, they realized why. At first, Steven thought it was a prank. He was the prankster of his family, and his mother and sister always teased him that one day they'd get him back. When he saw them lying on the floor, covered in blood, he couldn't wrap his head around it being anything but a prank. But the closer he got, the more he knew this

• 1:07:27Courtney Brown?

  was no prank. Without saying a word, Steven knelt down, putting a hand on his sister. And immediately, he screamed. Horrified, Anthony called 911, and officers rushed to the home, where they were able to fully process the scene that was too horrific for Anthony and Steven to stomach. But for police, it was equally challenging. One of the responding officers stated, quote, "I would say that's the worst thing I've ever seen in my life." Another echoed his thoughts, stating, quote, "You can never forget the images of that crime," end quote. Sherri had been shot in the head three times, and bound with items that to this day haven't been disclosed. But beside her, her 12-year-old daughter

• 1:08:11Courtney Brown?

  had been shot and was nude. And not only was she naked, but she had been posed in a very intentional way, as if her killer, quote, "wanted to show what he had done." Those who first arrived on the scene made it clear that whoever had killed Megan had posed her specifically for, quote, "shock value."

• 1:08:30Colin Brown?

  12-year-old Megan Sherer was used as a prop to appease Robert Brashers' sick desires, but that's not how we want her to be remembered. Megan was a star basketball player, a gifted public speaker, and a good friend to everyone. As news spread about the murder of the mother and daughter, the town of Portageville was devastated. The Sherers were a well-respected, hard-working family. Coach Julie Boyd told the Columbia Missourian, "They were a wonderful family. Megan was the sweetest, most loving child on my team," which is what everyone had to say about the family. Their close friend, Tina Delise, added, "Sherri's life was caring for her family. They were a wholesome family. They worked hard, went to church, and she helped out at school. I don't know that they had an enemy in the world."

• 1:09:16Colin Brown?

  Given that, investigators were baffled as to who would have wanted to hurt them. In addition, there were no signs of forced entry and nothing appeared to have been stolen from the home. Now, there were witnesses who said that a maroon van was spotted near their home that day, but other than that, they had nothing. Now, all these years later, police believe that Robert Brashers used a ruse, similar to the one that he used to get into the home in Memphis, to get Sheri or Megan to open the door. Then he brandished the gun, tied them up, and eventually, killed them. But at the time, police had no reason to even look at Robert. He lived nowhere near the crime scene. He didn't know the victims.

• 1:09:58Colin Brown?

  For police, it was haunting, not just because it was so random, but because by the end of the night, they were certain it was the work of a serial rapist. Because, just forty miles away, hours later, Robert struck again.

• 1:10:12Courtney Brown?

  Shortly after killing the mother and daughter in Portageville, Robert Brashers drove across the border into Dyer County, Tennessee, and he immediately began scoping out homes along the rural roads. It was about 9:30 PM, a warm spring night, the kind of Tennessee night where everything feels right in the world. Families have their doors and windows open to let in the cool breeze, and one unnamed 26-year-old woman was doing just that. After getting groceries, she slowly loaded them out of her car and brought them into the kitchen, stopping to linger on the porch in between bags. Then suddenly, a maroon car pulled up, and out came Robert Brashers. He flashed her a smile and told her that he was looking for a friend named Jeremy Taylor.

• 1:10:56Courtney Brown?

  He wasn't from the area, but was visiting, and couldn't find where his friend lived. But immediately, the homeowner's guard was up. She was alone with her three children, essentially out in the middle of nowhere, and she knew everyone in town. There was no Jeremy Taylor. So thinking on her feet, she grabbed her cellphone and told Robert that she'd check with a neighbor, a man who lived just down the road. The phone rang, and rang, and rang. The neighbor didn't answer, but the woman played it cool. She pretended that she was talking to the neighbor, despite the fact that she was speaking to an answering machine, and then, she hung up. She told Robert that her neighbor actually knew Jeremy Taylor, and encouraged him to drive down the road to talk to him about it.

• 1:11:39Courtney Brown?

  Her thought was that as soon as he was far enough away, she'd lock her front door and hide with the kids. But to her dismay, Robert didn't leave. Instead, he reached into his van and said he was grabbing a map, but he didn't pull out a map. He pulled out a gun. The woman sprinted inside with Robert close behind. She was just about to shut the door, when she felt him on the other side, pushing against it. As the two struggled, Robert suddenly took a step back. At that moment, the woman was able to slam the door and lock it. But as she did, Robert fired his gun directly into the door. The bullet ended up striking the woman's arm, but luckily from there, Robert ran to his car and took off in a cloud of dust, disappearing down the road.

• 1:12:23Courtney Brown?

  When investigators rushed to the scene to tend to the grazed wound, the mother was able to describe her attacker, and his maroon van. That description made the hairs on the back of their neck stand up, because a maroon van was also seen near the Sherer household, hours earlier, where Megan and Sheri were murdered, just forty miles away. But like most of Robert Brashers' crimes, the police had no idea he was responsible. The police had no idea who he was. But with this information, the locals began calling the attacker Mr. Maroon. And as silly as the name is, everyone was terrified of him. This was a man capable of sexually assaulting a child before shooting her alongside her

• 1:13:05Courtney Brown?

  mom, which is likely what he had planned with this woman, as well. And eventually, ballistics tests later confirmed that the exact same gun was used in both crimes. For local investigators, it was clear that they had a serial killer on their hands. Here's new Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens and Chief Freddie Hill discussing their original thoughts on the case.

• 1:13:28Speaker 06

  I made the statement then, this guy is a serial killer, make no doubt about it. And we felt confident that there would be more victims present themselves, or be brought to light as time went on, and I think there'll still be more.

• 1:13:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, he proved himself with that. When he left here and go straight to Diersburg and try, do the same thing again, he proved he was a serial killer.

• 1:13:56Speaker 06

  A predator.

• 1:13:57Speaker 05

  Predator.

• 1:13:58Courtney Brown?

  Now knowing you have a serial killer is much easier than catching a serial killer, especially when he has an MO like Robert Brashers. Robert would drive across state lines, looking for women he wanted to attack. Then, when he would spot them, he would strike, using his gun to control his victims and get what he wanted. And just two weeks after the failed attack on the woman in Dyer County, he was back out on the prowl to do it all over again. But this time, he made a mistake. Instead of breaking into a stranger's house, he decided to break into the home of someone he knew. It was a woman in Paragold, Arkansas, who would hire him for odd jobs. On Easter Sunday, 1998, she awoke to her cat pawing at her face, trying to wake her up.

• 1:14:42Courtney Brown?

  She thought it was odd, but it was 4:30 AM, so she pulled the covers up around herself and drifted back to sleep. For a moment, at least. Because next door, her neighbors had also been woken up by their pet, a small dog who was barking like crazy at something outside the window. When the neighbors looked outside, they saw Robert Brashers trying to break in. Immediately, the neighbors called the police, who rushed to the scene. Within seconds of arriving, they discovered Robert Brashers hiding behind a car in the driveway. He was quickly dragged to his feet and put in cuffs. Initially, he just seemed like another robber or peeping tom, but when police began to look through his duffel bag, they realized they were looking at something much worse.

• 1:15:25Courtney Brown?

  Inside, they found rope, wire cutters, gloves, lockpicking tools, and a gun, and something else that chilled them to the bone, a video camera. Whatever Robert had intended to do, it seemed as though he planned to record it. Police later described the items in the bag as a "kill kit." And yet, once again, he was only given a slap on the wrist. After sitting in jail for a few hours, he posted a $5,000 bail and was promptly released back into the free world.

• 1:15:56Colin Brown?

  No matter how many times it happens, it still shocks us in our research. Robert commits, or nearly commits, a heinous crime, and then is released to do it all over again. This time was no different. Just a few weeks later, on August 16th, 1998, he was arrested again. Earlier that day, around 2:30 PM, someone called the police reporting that a man in a blue van was driving erratically near a flea market on US Highway 412. Apparently, the man crashed through a fence and tore through the yard of Christ United Methodist Church and proceeded to hit another vehicle in the flea market parking lot. When police arrived, the man in the blue van was nowhere to be found. However, later that day, a motorist flagged down a police officer and stated that he

• 1:16:41Colin Brown?

  had given a man with an injury a ride to US Highway 412. And soon after, police officers were able to locate Robert on foot. Now, we have no idea how or where on his body Robert was injured. It seems likely that it happened when he crashed through the fence into the church parking lot, but the news report about this incident published in the Paragold Daily Press gives no details on what the injury was. Regardless, on the scene, Robert offered a name, Bill Blackston. He explained his injury to officers by saying he had been working on his Jeep Cherokee, and the drive shaft fell out and struck him. He added that the Jeep was stuck on a levee in the big, slow area. The man was taken to Arkansas Methodist Hospital via ambulance, and police officers were then

• 1:17:26Colin Brown?

  dispatched to the location of the Jeep. However, when they arrived, there was no Jeep. And after further investigation, they realized that Bill Blackston was actually Robert Brashers. From there, they made their way to his home at 5877 Green 853 Road. And in the backyard, crashed into a ditch along a soybean field, they discovered the blue car. Blood coated the steering wheel and the driver's seat, indicating that Robert had been injured inside the vehicle, but that's not where the blood stopped. Police noticed the back door of Robert's home was wide open. From where they stood, they could see knives lying around and blood all over the floor, which really has us scratching our heads.

• 1:18:08Colin Brown?

  Had Robert crashed his car and then injured himself, or been injured by someone in his kitchen after he arrived home? We don't know, and evidently, neither does anyone else. A single news article was published regarding this strange incident, and it ends with even more charges. Evidently, in all the chaos, Robert's neighbor Barry Floyd went to the police and reported that Robert had stolen cash and jewelry from his home that day. As a result, Robert was charged with residential burglary, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, public intoxication, and second-degree criminal impersonation. On November 12th, 1998, Robert was supposed to appear in court, but he had no intention of showing up.

• 1:18:52Colin Brown?

  Instead, he was already in Lexington, Kentucky, looking for another victim.

• 1:18:57Courtney Brown?

  He found that victim in Linda Rutledge. Linda came from a family of hard workers. They had founded the Nixon Hearing Aid Center in Lexington, and 43-year-old Linda proudly worked at the business. By 1998, she was a single mother. She and her husband had divorced, so it was up to her to work hard and support her son. And that's exactly what she did every single day. On the morning of November 12th, 1998, Linda showed up to the business early. It was a routine she was used to by now. Go in, open up the shop, and get everything ready for the customers that day. But this day would go much differently, because just like with the yogurt shop murders, Robert Brashers happened to be driving by when he spotted Linda in the store, working all by herself.

• 1:19:41Courtney Brown?

  There weren't many witnesses around, so he pulled into the parking lot and decided that he was going to attack her. It's believed that Linda's fate looked a lot like the girls in the yogurt shop. When no one was around, he broke inside and sexually assaulted her. Then, when he was finished, he shot her multiple times in the head. And just like in the yogurt shop murders, he decided he needed to cover up his crime. So he set fire to the building, hopped in Linda's car, and took off, watching from afar as the building went up in smoke. Around 7:40 a.m., a person driving down Malibu Drive called the Lexington Fire Department to report a structure fire. When first responders arrived on scene, they saw heavy black smoke billowing above.

• 1:20:24Courtney Brown?

  But when they made their way into the business, they made a shocking discovery. In a back hallway, they found the badly burned body of Linda Rutledge. Before the autopsy even took place, police were certain it was her. Her parents had already filed a missing persons report, but after she was identified, the case went cold, and it remained that way for over 30 years.

• 1:20:46Colin Brown?

  But luckily, Robert Brashers was unraveling, and his crime spree was reaching its end. In 1998, his daughter Deborah claimed that there had been a noticeable change in him. He seemed overly paranoid all the time. After years of violence, rape, and murder, it seemed as if his crimes were weighing down on him. Not because he felt guilty, but because he was afraid of getting caught. According to his family, he started wearing wigs out in public trying to hide his identity. He even told his family to call him Mitch when they would go out. Robert's mental state was so fragile that Deborah and her sisters were told by their mother to never let him leave the house alone. But even inside the home, he wasn't safe.

• 1:21:28Colin Brown?

  Deborah recalled that she found a disturbing audio recording of him self-harming. She later said, "He took knives. I had a tape recording of him saying, 'I wonder if this is going to hurt,' and it sounded like a saw in the background. But he cut his own arm and neck trying to kill himself in August 1998, seven days before my birthday. He's running around screaming, 'I'm not going back to prison, I'm not going back to prison.'" So, he knew he was about to die. He knew his death was coming close.

• 1:21:58Courtney Brown?

  It's unclear what led to Robert Brashers' mental decline. For years, raping and murdering women never seemed to bother him. But by 1999, he likely thought the walls were closing in, which brings us to January 13th, 1999. That morning, police officers noticed a stolen vehicle parked at the Super 8 Motel in Kennet, Missouri. After speaking with the hotel staff, they learned that Robert had arrived in the vehicle with his family just days earlier. So they knocked on his hotel door, hoping to speak with him. However, when Robert saw the police outside, he quickly grabbed his loaded gun and hid under the bed of the hotel room. Now, at first, Robert's wife Rose told the officers that he wasn't there.

• 1:22:41Courtney Brown?

  But evidently, Robert wasn't too good at hiding, because the officers could see him under the bed. They announced themselves and told Robert to come out, but he didn't listen. He lifted the gun to his head and threatened to blow his brains out if they didn't leave. Now, that alone is traumatizing for everyone involved. But in this case, remember, Robert's four children were inside the room, trapped alongside him. The police knew that this was a hostage situation, so they backed out and called the hotel room's phone to speak with Robert. For the next four hours, Robert held his family hostage inside the room. He repeatedly told the officers that he was going to shoot himself. Police tried to negotiate with him over the phone, desperately trying to de-escalate the situation.

• 1:23:25Courtney Brown?

  A man who thinks he has lost everything is capable of doing the unthinkable, and police were terrified that he was going to kill his family. So, they negotiated with him, trying to convince him to send his family out. And eventually, somehow, he let them leave the room. By then, it was 4 a.m., and without his family by his side, Robert came completely unglued. Maybe in his paranoid state, he thought the cops weren't there for the stolen vehicle. Maybe he thought that his rapes and murders had finally caught up to him, and instead of facing the consequences, he decided to take his own life. While underneath the bed of the hotel room, Robert Brashers held a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. From outside, the police heard a single gunshot and rushed in.

• 1:24:10Courtney Brown?

  He was found on the floor with a single gunshot wound to his head, but he was still alive. They rushed him to the nearby hospital, where he remained alive for six days. However, on January 19th, 1999, he was finally pronounced dead, taking all of his crimes with him to the grave. And the weapon he did it with was none other than his 380, the same gun he used to kill Amy Ayers, the same gun he had his father allegedly get back for him. Throughout the years, that gun had been special to Robert. He had used that gun to take a number of lives. He used it to force girls into submission, so he could do whatever he wanted with them. And in his final act, he used it to take his own life.

• 1:24:53Colin Brown?

  After Robert put that bullet in his head, his body sat in the ground for years and years. To anyone who looked into him, they'd definitely see a troubled past, but they would have had no idea that he was a sadistic serial killer. In fact, the only violent crime he'd ever been convicted of was the attempted murder of Michelle Wilkerson in 1985. And it wouldn't be until 2018, 18 years after his death, that the truth would finally start to unravel. By then, 28-year-old Jenny Zittricky had been dead for as long as she'd been alive. In 1990, when her body was found floating in the bathtub of her Greenville, South Carolina apartment, no one had any idea who was responsible.

• 1:25:35Colin Brown?

  Investigators had followed different leads over the years, but they never brought them to any good suspects. And that's because Jenny was raped and murdered by a complete stranger. Robert Brashers had no connection to her whatsoever, other than working as a maintenance man at the apartment complex. The two never had a relationship. He simply saw her one day and decided to break into her apartment.

• 1:25:57Courtney Brown?

  But one promising thing about Jenny's case was that they did have a DNA profile of the man who killed her. And in 2018, through advancements in DNA technology, they learned that the same man who killed Jenny was also linked to a number of other crimes around the United States. The exact same DNA found at Jenny's crime scene was also found in the rape kit of that 14-year-old girl in Memphis, Tennessee, which was finally tested after sitting in an evidence locker for decades. Robert's DNA was also at the attempted home invasion in Dyers County, Tennessee, and finally in the murders of the mother and daughter, Sherry and Megan Scherer, in Portageville, Missouri. Now, at the time, investigators still didn't have a name attached to the DNA.

• 1:26:41Courtney Brown?

  They just had one profile linked to all these different crimes: an unidentified serial killer. So with all of the DNA found at all the different crime scenes, investigators in Missouri, Tennessee, and South Carolina collaborated with Parabon Labs to develop a genealogical profile of their suspect.

• 1:27:00Colin Brown?

  A genealogist named Cece Moore built a family tree from the man's DNA sample and looked for people who shared significant amounts of his DNA. And soon enough, she came across his biological daughter, Deborah. In 2018, Deborah was in her late twenties, and as we've mentioned throughout this episode, she had no idea about her father's past. In fact, she didn't even know about the attempted murder he was convicted of in 1985. But now detectives were knocking on her door, telling her that her father was a suspected serial killer. At that moment, she recalled feeling horrified, but at the same time, finally feeling like she had some answers. "I knew something was wrong with him mentally.

• 1:27:43Colin Brown?

  It surprised me a whole, whole lot, but it answered a lot of questions at the same time. It answered a lot of questions about what was wrong with him, what would make him kill himself." Soon after, on September 27th, 2018, Robert Brashers' body was exhumed. His DNA was taken and put into CODIS, and sure enough, it was a match to the four different crime scenes. After decades, the man who killed Jenny Zittricky and Sherry and Megan Scherer had a name: Robert Eugene Brashers.

• 1:28:14Speaker 05

  Good evening. A cold case cracked decades after a woman was found murdered in Greenville County. We first brought you this as breaking news last night here on 7 News at 10. Jenny Zittricky was strangled and raped inside her own apartment.

• 1:28:28Colin Brown?

  And for 28 years, her killer has never been named until today. In October 2018, Jenny's brother Philip spoke about her life before she was murdered. No one wanted to give Robert a second thought. Instead, Philip wanted Jenny to be remembered for her life. It's been 28 years since Jenny was taken from us. The intervening years have brought painful sorrow of loss and the longing for what could have been. But we do well to remember her in life. She was a force of nature, a firecracker, a bundle of infectious energy, an intelligent,

• 1:29:13Colin Brown?

  vibrant, caring human being. All whose lives she touched, near and far, then and now, should keep her in their hearts, not as she left, but as she lived. Investigators in Portageville were also so relieved to finally have answers on the crime that had haunted them for years. Good morning. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for attending this today. On March 28th, 1998, Neimater County witnessed one of the most heinous crimes ever in the history of this county. That was the murder of Megan and Sherry.

• 1:29:57Speaker 05

  Shear in rural Portageville.

• 1:30:02Speaker 05

  We activated our Major K Squad immediately. And through diligence, through hard work and tenacity, we have finally solved this case. We've traveled all the way across the United States, done countless interviews, search warrants, DNA test, and we finally identified the killer. We have positively identified one Robert Brasher out of Paragould, Arkansas,

• 1:30:37Speaker 05

  who took his own life in Kennett, Missouri in January of 1999. Make no mistake about this, gentlemen, he is a serial rapist and a serial killer.

• 1:30:51Colin Brown?

  Finally, the world knew the truth about this monster who had lurked in the shadows for so long. But even then, they still didn't know the full extent of his crimes. There were still five of Robert's victims whose cases were unsolved. Jennifer, Sarah, Eliza, and Amy from the Austin Yogurt Shop murders and the murder of Linda Rutledge in Lexington, Kentucky. But those discoveries were right around the corner.

• 1:31:15Courtney Brown?

  In 2025, it had been 34 years since the Austin Yogurt Shop murders, and the Austin Police Department had a fresh set of eyes looking at the case. The lead investigator was Detective Daniel Jackson. After decades with no answers, he went back to the drawing board, looking at all the physical evidence, specifically that 380 shell casing found in the drain inside the yogurt shop. Now, as we mentioned in our last episode, bullet casings have what is called a ballistic fingerprint, which are microscopic scratches left behind that are specific to each gun. And the ATF has this database where police departments can upload ballistic fingerprints to see if certain guns have been used in other crime scenes around the U.S.

• 1:31:59Courtney Brown?

  Now, the 380 shell casing found at the yogurt shop had been submitted to the database in 1997 and again in 2007. However, there was never a match. But in 2025, it had been nearly 20 years since the last submission, and the database had expanded since then. So Detective Jackson thought, why not try it again? He later told Forensic Magazine, quote, "I don't know what made me go down that rabbit hole that morning, but I did, and I'm glad I did," end quote. Once again, he uploaded the ballistic fingerprint of the 380 shell casing found in the yogurt shop. He hoped that maybe he would get a match, or at the very least, get some more information. But nothing could have prepared him for the email he got just hours later.

• 1:32:43Courtney Brown?

  After over three decades, the Austin Police Department was going to get their first actual clue leading to the real killer. Because when Jackson opened that email, he discovered that the 380 casing found in the yogurt shop had the exact same ballistic fingerprint as the casing found in the murder of Linda Rutledge in Kentucky. Two crimes, over a thousand miles away from one another, using the exact same firearm. This finding was huge. So immediately, Detective Jackson connected with investigators in Kentucky, and they started comparing evidence. Now, in both of these murders, they only had a partial DNA profile of the killer. But from there, they put those profiles together, and they started reaching out to crime labs

• 1:33:26Courtney Brown?

  across the country, seeing if anyone in their system matched this partial DNA profile. And in August of 2025, they had their second big break. A crime lab in South Carolina found a match. The male DNA found at the yogurt shop matched the DNA found at Jenny Suttricky's crime scene in South Carolina. And Jenny's murder had already been solved years prior. So it was at that very moment when investigators in Austin finally saw the name of the man responsible, Robert Eugene Brashers. Soon after that, investigators were able to compare Robert's DNA against the DNA at the yogurt shop, specifically the DNA found under Amy Ayer's fingernails. And of course, it was a match.

• 1:34:09Courtney Brown?

  Finally, after 34 years, Jennifer, Sarah, Eliza, and Amy had justice.

• 1:34:15Colin Brown?

  I can't even imagine what it was like inside the Austin Police Department that day. This was a crime that had followed this town for years. It had haunted the police department. It was even the first episode of Courtney and I's show. And even though the department had made their mistakes over the years, it was very clear that the Austin PD was desperate to solve these murders. And finally, the day had come. Detective Jackson would later say in the HBO documentary, The Yogurt Shop Murders, "This is something that could not have happened before 2025. And I'm sorry that it took us 34 years to get here. But we're here now, and Amy's final moments on this earth were to solve this case for us. It's because of her fighting back."

• 1:34:58Colin Brown?

  Now, it would take a couple of months for Linda Rutledge to get justice, but finally, on January 7th, 2026, the DNA at her crime scene was also officially matched to Robert Brashers as well, making her his eighth confirmed murder victim.

• 1:35:15Speaker 06

  Guys, for nearly three decades, a Lexington family has been asking one question, who killed Linda Rutledge? Now, they have an answer, but that answer comes with unsettling information about her killer. For 27 years, her killer remained unknown.

• 1:35:29Courtney Brown?

  Linda's mother told us that she hoped that it was no one that knew her. Because how could someone that knew her and loved her do that to her? These answers didn't just provide relief for the victims' families and the communities that Robert tormented, but it also brought relief for the people who were blamed for these murders over the years. In the case of Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn, Maurice Pierce, and Robert Springsteen, they were ostracized for decades after the yogurt shop murders. Even after it was proven that their DNA did not match the killer, people still looked at them differently. They faced years of public scrutiny. Their reputations had been destroyed. Their relationships were affected.

• 1:36:13Courtney Brown?

  And on top of everything, up until this point, they had lived with the constant fear that they could one day be retried for a crime they did not commit. At one point, Maurice Pierce stated that he would rather be dead than have to deal with this. And tragically, he never escaped that burden, as he was fatally shot by police before his name was officially cleared. But finally, on February 26th, 2026, Judge Dana Blasey formally exonerated Michael Scott, Forrest Welborn, Maurice Pierce, and Robert Springsteen. In court, Michael Scott issued a statement on how the case affected his life.

• 1:36:50Speaker 05

  Today, more than 26 years later, modern forensic science again conclusively confirms that I have always, what I have always maintained, I had nothing to do with these crimes.

• 1:37:04Speaker 05

  The evidence identifies Robert Eugene Brashir,

• 1:37:10Speaker 05

  a known serial killer, and is the sole person responsible. He is someone I've never met.

• 1:37:22Speaker 05

  I lost my family, I lost my youth, I lost my early adulthood.

• 1:37:37Speaker 05

  My daughter was just three years old when I was arrested. I had just, we had just celebrated our first wedding anniversary.

• 1:37:47Speaker 05

  I lost the chance to build a life with my family.

• 1:37:55Speaker 05

  When I was finally released, that the relationship I once had with my, my wife just wasn't there. That ultimately led to our divorce.

• 1:38:07Speaker 05

  For decades, I have carried the burden of wrongful conviction.

• 1:38:15Speaker 05

  Every day, I have carried the weight of a crime I did not commit.

• 1:38:22Speaker 05

  No court ruling can return the years and the love that were taken from me, but it can acknowledge the truth.

• 1:38:31Speaker 05

  I am not guilty.

• 1:38:33Colin Brown?

  On May 13th, 2026, the city of Austin agreed to pay the four wrongly convicted men $35 million in compensation. Austin City Manager TC Brodnak stated that the settlement was "the final chapter of a devastating story in Austin's history. I hope that this settlement brings a sense of closure to everyone affected by this horrific event." Michael Scott and Robert Springsteen are set to receive $9.8 million. Maurice Pierce's family will receive $10 million, and Forrest Welborn will receive $4.8 million. It's the most money that's ever been awarded to someone in Austin's history.

• 1:39:10Courtney Brown?

  But to wrap this story up, we want to focus on the people most affected by these tragedies, the victims' families. Throughout the research of this case, all of the family's stories stuck with us. But the one that remained at the top of my mind, mainly because of how outspoken she's been about her experience, is Sonora Thomas, the sister of Eliza Thomas. In the aftermath, she became the caretaker for her grieving mother. She was left alone in the agony of the loss of her sister. And in spite of it, she built a very beautiful life for herself. Sonora became a therapist, developed her own practice, and became the type of person she needed when she was younger. But through it all, she never forgot her big sister, the girl she looked up to, the

• 1:39:53Courtney Brown?

  girl who tragically she never got to grow old with. Here she is, expressing her thanks to all the investigators for finally closing the case and explaining the depth of the loss all of the families have felt.

• 1:40:08Courtney Brown?

  A million kindnesses that have been extended to me and my family have gotten us to this moment. Some of us.

• 1:40:22Courtney Brown?

  I think of my mom today, and I wish she were here.

• 1:40:28Courtney Brown?

  Our reality doesn't change. After today, our families are still too small, still missing an essential ingredient. And we are lesser for it. We have been robbed of a life with nieces and nephews and grandchildren, and with sisters to grow old with. Sonora lost a sister and an idol. Barbara Harbison lost her world, her two daughters, Sarah and Jennifer. And yet, in her speech to the media regarding the case, all she had to talk about was her gratitude and her love of her girls and the officers who never forgot them.

• 1:41:11Speaker 07

  I'm really excited about being here. It's been a crazy couple of days. And I just really came here to say, I'm full of gratitude. It has been so long, and all we ever wanted for this case was the truth. We never wanted anyone to go to jail or be charged with anything that they did not do. Vengeance was never it. It was always the truth. And I'm here to really talk about the police department and how involved and supportive they have been. From the very beginning, we have Mike Huckabee, and please keep him in your prayers, his health is bad.

• 1:41:53Speaker 07

  And him and John Jones, they were the first people that we fell in love with on the force because they told us about what had happened. And starting with those guys, 34 years ago, they were been in our lives and our families all of this time. And every, every officer that I see in Austin that has been there for us and loved us, and what they have done, people don't understand how hard they work. Everybody is concerned for the solving of the case. Everybody was concerned about all of us here because they know the tragedy was so painful and continues to be.

• 1:42:35Speaker 07

  But I really just came to say thank you for the Austin Police Department and all the love and support that you have given us over these 34 years. And I thank you for that.

• 1:42:46Colin Brown?

  Then there's Sean, the older brother of Amy, who fought alongside his wife, Angie, for justice for her.

• 1:42:52Speaker 06

  Thank you to every law enforcement officer from multiple local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Thank you to all the labs and their employees. Thank you to all the experts that had handled this. The results you see today is when you have an army of people working together to reach a common goal, not for themselves, but for the victims and their families. Thank you to all of you. This day, I was never sure I was going to get here. This chapter will close soon, but we're just getting started. You will see.

• 1:43:30Courtney Brown?

  And that is where the story stands today. And to tell you the truth, it doesn't even feel real giving you this update. I remember me and Colin were talking over dinner one night years ago, and he asked me, if you could have one mystery solved, what would it be? And my answer was this, the yogurt shop murders. I'm so relieved that not only did their families have answers, but so did the families of eight other victims. And I think if this story tells us anything, it's that both true evil and true unconditional love exist in the world at depths that are hard to comprehend. Robert Brashers was a sadistic predator who never had to pay for his crimes. He drifted around the United States, killing at random, taking what he pleased without

• 1:44:15Courtney Brown?

  any regard for anyone but himself. He murdered eight women and young girls, raped, assaulted, and traumatized several others who survived his attacks. And no one had any idea it was him until nearly two decades after his death. That's where we see the true evil of humanity. But on the other hand, we see the true unconditional love. The families of Robert's victims never stopped fighting. They pushed for the answers, the billboards, the justice. They badgered police departments, urged them to try new technology, and kept in relentless contact with the officers on the case. In the end, it paid off. And though the yogurt shop murders have been solved, the families of the victims, specifically

• 1:45:00Courtney Brown?

  Sean and Angie Ayers, aren't done because they want a question answered. How many other victims did Robert Brashers have? Crime scenes where he used different guns, or scenes where he didn't leave his DNA behind at all? Robert's own daughter, Deborah, believes that there is more to her father's story. She said, quote, "There's no telling where it's going to end up, and that's the scary part," end quote. And as horrifying as that is, I think we can find hope in the fact that with each and every year, it's getting harder and harder to get away with these violent crimes. And with advancements in technology, monsters like Robert Brashers won't be able to stay in the shadows forever.

• 1:45:40Speaker 05

  The yogurt shop murders will always be part of Austin's history. The pain from that night and its aftermath will never go away. But with the knowledge we have now, we can share some peace. God bless Amy, Jennifer, Sarah, and Eliza. They will always be a part of our city's identity. God bless their families, and God bless Austin.

• 1:46:19Colin Brown?

  For today's episode, we'll be making a donation to Justice Drive, which is dedicated to helping law enforcement agencies, victim advocates, and concerned citizens raise funds to advance criminal investigations. Hey, everybody, Colin here. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Murder in America. And wow, this is definitely a full circle moment. The Austin Yogurt Shop Murders was the case that Courtney and I decided to tackle for our very first episode of the show. And back when we started the show in 2021, there were no leads, there was no movement in the investigation. At that point, this was just an unsolved mystery that we all thought would probably remain an unsolved mystery forever.

• 1:47:04Colin Brown?

  However, we're so incredibly happy that this thing was finally solved, and it's a great feeling to know that justice was finally served in its own way 30-plus years later. If you guys want to help support the show, don't forget to leave us a five-star review wherever you listen to this podcast, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or somewhere else. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram, at Murder in America, to see photos from every case that we cover here on the show. Anyways, y'all, thank you so much for listening. This was a very full circle episode for Courtney and I both to record. If you're listening on Friday, we hope you guys have a great weekend. Thank you all for tuning in, and I'll catch y'all on the next one.

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